Dansband ("dance band"), or danseband in Norwegian and Danish, is a Swedish term for a band that plays dansbandsmusik ("dance band music"). Dansbandsmusik is often danced to in pairs. Jitterbug and foxtrot music are often included in this category. The music is primarily inspired by swing, schlager, country, jazz, and rock. The main influence for rock-oriented bands is the rock music of the 1950s and 1960s.

The terms dansband and dansbandsmusik were coined around 1970, when Swedish popular music developed a signature style. The genre developed primarily in Sweden, but has spread to neighbouring countries Norway, Denmark and the Swedish-speaking regions of Finland. When the music came to Norway it was first called "svensktoppar" (from the Swedish radio music chart Svensktoppen, which was a major arena for dansband music before its rules changed in January 2003).

A dansband often travels by bus, performing several times every week year-round, outdoors in the summertime and indoors in the wintertime. Performances may also be held on a boat.

Several dansbands are named after their lead singer (whose name is sometimes shortened), followed by "orkester" ("orchestra"). The tradition origins from the old dance orchestras, often named after their Kapellmeister. The possessive suffix "s" is often replaced by "z" in dansband names. Some dansbands are named after earlier members.

The main audience for dansband music is middle-aged adults. The music is often performed live by the bands at venues where the main interest of the audience is dancing, rather than watching the performance on stage. However, many dansbands also record albums and singles.

Dansband lyrics are often brightly characterized, and are mostly about love, friendship and peace. Other lyrics are about dancing. Some of the song texts are inspired by national romanticism, with lyrics about things such as old memories from the past, nature, or native districts. Romantic dansband lyrics are reminiscent of pop, where the singer declares his or her love for the person being sung to, but are often more focused on growing old together and living together until one of them dies. The Norwegian dansband Ole Ivars has also, much with humor, written lyrics that are more about society than traditional dansband lyrics.

In the 1990s, special "dansband songwriters" broke through, among them Lasse Holm, Gert Lengstrand and Torgny Söderberg. For many years, the same person wrote songs for most bands, but soon dansband musicians became more involved in songwriting.[1]

Before dansband music became popular, many jazz orchestras played a "schlager-inspired" dance music. Many people believe that the development of the dansbands during the 1950s and 1960s depended on the decreasing interest for jazz, it being replaced by pop and rock as the most popular music among young people. Many Swedish dansbands of the time were known as pop groups during the 1960s, a gestation period shared with the showband scene in Ireland, which had many similarities with its Nordic counterpart, especially in the influences referenced in creating a homegrown music scene such as jazz, American & British pop music, swing, and country.

The term "dansband" was coined in Sweden in 1976, to sound more modern and tougher than the earlier "dansorkester" (dance orchestra), but later many of the bands have begun to call themselves "live bands".[2]

For taxation reasons, it was possible to deduct "fantasy" outfits in the declaration of income. The reasoning behind the phrasing was that it shouldn't be possible to wear the same outfit in your daily life. This led to many bands wearing highly extravagant matched outfits in their stage performances.[3]

1980s: Dancing in the boat, town hotel and dansband decline during the years of disco[edit]

By 1976-1977 pop groups like ABBA, The Bee Gees and Boney M. came to dominate dance floors and record charts with disco. Some dansbands, like Sten & Stanley, "became turncoats", performing their own disco covers, and followed the disco fashion. However, most of these changes failed and "Dansband death" became a common expression. Several dansbands disbanded and soon only the full-time bands remained, highlighted by Matz Bladhs and Vikingarna. Performances often took place on boats and at town hotels, with male members appearing in a suit, which for many years would become a dansband stereotype.

Vikingarna was one of the more popular dansbands in Sweden before being disbanded in 2004, but during the late 1990s and early 2000s (decade), they also toured Germany and recorded albums in German.

After substantial decreased dansband music in radio and television in Sweden during the early 2000s (decade), while the popularity remained, the dansbands declared that they were being discriminated against in August 2007, since Sveriges Radio plays many different genres of music, especially if the songs are written or performed by Swedes. The dansbands reported Sveriges Radio to Granskningsnämnden för radio och TV (the Swedish Broadcasting Commission) in what became known as "Dansbandsupproret" ("the dansband rebellion"), which was covered widely by the mass media. However, a few days later the commission decided not to take up the matter.

In recent years, artists have begun to mix dansband music with other genres. Per Arnez, for example, has gained some fame by remixing dansband with hip-hop.

The Swedish Sveriges Radio hitlist Svensktoppen was dominated by dansbands between 1993 and 2002. When the rules were changed in January 2003 to allowing songs in languages other than Swedish, dansband music started to decline and was replaced with ordinary pop and rock. Dansband music also dominated the musical interludes in Bingolotto until Leif "Loket" Olsson resigned as presenter in 1999.